At the present time, the price of utilities, such as electric power, is affected by not only the amount of the utility consumed but also by the time at which the utility is consumed. The utility companies are beginning to charge large industrial clients different rates for consumption at different times of the day, and are presently considering various apparatus for allowing similar types of charges to individual homes. A great number and variety of apparatus has been patented, and otherwise proposed, for remotely readable, automatic utility metering systems. In general, these metering systems utilize telephone lines or radio communications for receiving commands and sending information to a remotely located central reading station. A typical remote reading system utilizing a telephone connection with the central reading station is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,458, issued Feb. 15, 1977, entitled "Remote Automatic Reading System". A typical radio communication system will be described presently in conjunction with FIG. 1.
Theft of utilities, and especially electric power, is a major problem of the utility industry today and estimates indicate that the theft burden can be expected to increase geometrically. With the advent of the new remotely readable metering systems many types of methods and apparatus are being devised to defeat the metering systems. For example, in radio communications systems signals can be blocked from the receiver so that commands changing the rates are not received. Further, meters can be removed and installed backwards and the meters can be simply disconnected periodically. The only techniques available today to prevent theft are on-site inspection and statistical billing surveys.
A technique for controlling the amount of power consumption, especially during peak use periods, has been developed wherein high power consuming appliances of a consumer are turned off for short periods of time to reduce the load on the utility company. Turning off the appliance is referred to as "shedding" and the period during which the appliance is turned off is referred to as the shed "mode" or "condition" and the appliance is "restored" at the end of the shed mode. Apparatus for shedding appliances to maintain an individual's consumption below a predetermined value are disclosed in a number of patents, but this type of shedding is generally not the type referred to herein. Shedding can also be accomplished by the utility company through shed commands transmitted by the central reading station. If an individual agrees to allow the utility company to practice this technique in his home, shed controls are attached to one or more of his major appliances, which controls are in some manner remotely operated by the utility company. In return for allowing this technique to be practiced, the individual generally receives some reduction in his billing. Assuming that all of the shed controls are working properly the utility company can substantially reduce its peak load during high use periods by alternately shedding, for example, the air conditioners of a first ten percent of its clients for five minutes and the air conditioners of a second ten percent of its clients for five minutes, etc. In this fashion the utility company substantially reduces its load and no client loses his air conditioner for more than five minutes every fifty minutes. However, if clients defeat the appliance shed control after agreeing to allow it to be installed, the shedding technique does not operate properly and power is being misappropriated from the utility company.